History of science in science education

The case of the chemical reaction

Abstract

This papers presents an epistemological-historical analysis of the concept of chemical reaction in the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries from a sociocultural perspective of knowledge for educational purposes. Emphasis is placed on the question of the basic content of chemistry, experiments and associated organizational processes of scientific knowledge, since it will identify which is the conception of science implicit in the development of such concept in the scientific activity of its construction. In this sense, the paper emphasizes the importance of using the history of chemistry for the development of alternative proposals for teaching subjects such as the modeling of the chemical reaction, given that singling out the historical analysis enables one to raise methodological strategies to achieve changes in student learning.